Georgia School Board OKs Alternatives to Evolution

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A suburban Atlanta school board Thursday night voted
unanimously to allow teachers to introduce students to different views about
the origins of life.

The Cobb County Board of Education, the state's second-largest school board,
approved the policy change after limited discussion, calling it a "necessary
element of providing a balanced education."

The board's vote drew cheers from some and expressions of dismay from others
in the packed meeting room.

"This supposed victory [by proponents of alternate theories] was shallow,
very shallow," said Jeffrey Selman. Selman and other opponents believe
the new policy is a step toward introducing religion -- in particular, creationism
-- in public schools. "We're going to be watching this very closely."

The adopted policy, however, included language intended to clarify the board's
position that its action is not an endorsement of one particular theory over
another.

"It is the intent of the Cobb County Board of Education that this policy
not be interpreted to restrict the teaching of evolution; to promote or require
the teaching of creationism; or to discriminate for or against a particular
set of religious beliefs, religion in general or non-religion," a portion
of the policy said.

The board's decision pleased Michael Gray, a Cobb high school junior.

"I had to do a term paper about evolution and there were just things that
I could disprove or have alternate reasons for," Gray told The Associated
Press. "I want my brother and sister to be given the option and not told
it's the absolute truth."
Religion in school?

A lawsuit, filed last month by Selman and the American Civil Liberties Union,
prompted the board to reconsider its policy.

Selman, who has a son in Cobb schools, sued the system because some middle
and high school science textbooks include a disclaimer telling students that
evolution is a theory and not a fact. He argued that the disclaimer was a step
toward introducing religion in schools, which is unconstitutional.

Some educators agreed. "This is an intrusion of theological views into
the classroom," said Wyatt Anderson, dean of the Franklin College of Arts
and Sciences at the University of Georgia. "What our students need to learn
... is science."

Cobb school officials took another look at the policy and discussed amending
it to include other theories, said board member Lindsey Tippins.

The new policy, he said, drops a provision barring the district from teaching
views contrary to "family values," which he said had been struck down
by the courts.

"We're just cleaning up an old policy," Tippins said, who added that
officials don't want to force religious thought on students.

Larry Taylor, who has three children in the Cobb County schools, said he doesn't
advocate creationism but believes evolution should not be presented as the only
acceptable theory.

"Evolution has not been proven," said Taylor, who joined the debate
over what should be taught in Cobb schools after reading about the ACLU lawsuit.
"There are a growing number of scientists who are skeptical about Darwinism."

The debate of teaching about the origin of species is not limited to suburban
Georgia. Ohio educators and parents are split over teaching "intelligent
design," which theorizes that life was designed by a higher power.

In Kansas last year, the state Board of Education voted to restore the theory
of evolution to its curriculum, which had been removed in a controversial vote
two years earlier.